all about Madonna

Madonna Interview : Interview Magazine

Ingrid: I’m constantly hearing people who are saying, “Well, she’s being funny.”

Madonna: You mean being ironic?

Ingrid: Yes.

Madonna: Well, obviously I’m embracing it because I know it’s going to confuse people, but the true essence of my feelings for her is that I feel really protective of her. Don’t even ask me why.

Ingrid: That was my instinct.

Madonna: I’m not going to sit here and dissect her music.

Ingrid: Right, nor do I want you to.

Madonna: In a way it’s not even worth it because it’s like dissecting my daughter’s music.

Ingrid: [laughs]

Madonna: You know it’s just not dissectible yet. But there’s something about her. Even though she’s terribly successful, for some reason I think of her as an underdog.

Ingrid: She is. Why? I was thinking about that the other day.

Madonna: I know it’s that weird thing.

Ingrid: I thought, Why am I thinking that this person – who has billions of dollars and is so successful – is an underdog? She’s a victim of a type of snobbery is what it really is. Didn’t you start to bring her up after people made fun of her on things like awards shows?

Madonna: Totally. It’s like when you go to a party and there’s a girl, and everyone’s avoiding her because she’s really pretty, or whatever. I always want to go over and talk to that person. She is a victim of snobbery. People are going, oh she’s this, and oh she’s got fake tits and blah blah blah, and you know as soon as I see somebody getting picked on, I just want to go and, you know, talk to them at the party. Do you know what I mean?

Ingrid: Why do you think that is?

Madonna: I don’t know. Maybe to a certain extent I can relate to it, because I feel that I was certainly a victim of snobbery when I first started. I can’t even count the number of things that I read about myself that kept dismissing me.

Ingrid: Go on.

Madonna: And dismissing the fact that I had talent or what I could sing or any of those things. And now I just see everybody doing it to her, so I feel defensive of her and protective of her. It’s so easy to get up and criticize people, isn’t it?

Ingrid: It sure is.

Madonna: It’s like blah blah blah. I say you get up and do it then. You hang your balls out there. You get up and dive off the diving board, and then let me hear what you have to say. [Wearing the Britney Spears T-shirt was] a funny thing because it’s just like everything else. When you know something’s right, you just go with it. I swear to God, from the time I put it on, till the day I finished my promotional tour, it was my talisman. It may sound totally perverse, but it just brought me luck.

Ingrid: Speaking of young artists, are there any newcomers to Maverick [the record label that Madonna runs with her partner and friend Guy Oseary] that you want to tell people about?

Madonna: Hmmmm, I’m thinking of all the people who are in the studio doing stuff that you already know about. Alanis [Morissette] has got a new record coming out, and Prodigy’s got a new record coming out. And there’s a Swedish singer called Amanda. She’s very young, with an incredible voice. And we’ve just started a Latin label.

Ingrid: Oh, really? I didn’t know that. That’s great.

Madonna: Yes, we did. And we’re trying to sign a band right now called Cafe Tacuba. Have you heard of them?

Ingrid: No.

Madonna: They’re unbelievable. They’re Mexican, and in fact there’s loads of artists that we’re trying to sign right now. There’s really so much talent, you have no idea. And it’s not like your typical kind of Latin pop thing, but much edgier, interesting stuff, things that you wouldn’t expect, kind of like the Latin version of Air, you know that French group, Air. Stuff like that. We’ve got this great guy running the Latin label down in Miami. So we’re getting that off the ground, and I’m really excited about it.

Ingrid: It sounds it. And when are you and the other Guy going to make the video for “What it Feels Like for a Girl”?

Madonna: We’re shooting it in three weeks.

Ingrid: And you’re going to shoot that in L.A.”

Madonna: Yes.

Ingrid: If this mini-thing works out, maybe you’ll let him direct you again.

Madonna: Oh, hey, I think he’s a genius. I’d love to work with him. I’ll be his production assistant.